Negroni Talks – Archispeak, Time to Kill the Jargon?

The Negroni Talks – hosted by architects Fourthspace and sponsored by Campari – are back for a second series following a sell-out run, organised for the 2018 London Festival of Architecture. Located in the Venetian restaurant Ombra, the Negroni Talks were set up to capture the lively and provocative debates that took place in the European café culture of the early twentieth century. Covering a wide range of topics, the second series of talks will grapple with key issues such as architectural language, the housing crisis, control in cities and game theory.

If practicing architecture wasn’t difficult enough, it doesn’t help that the majority of people have no idea what it actually means. This is not completely surprising as it is a complex and multifaceted profession but the language often used to describe projects can seem elitist and indecipherable. Most buildings in our cities play a role in public life, so why do so many architects resort to alienating archi-speak? Should designers rely on PR and marketing people to ‘dumb down’ their complex ideas? What’s wrong with having a technical language for an equally technical industry?